With the limited space allowed for the power inverter circuits in electric and/or electric hybrid automotive applications and the high cost of the semiconductors, the demand for integration of power electronics increases.
A known way of reducing the space occupied by the semiconductors in vehicles inverters is to increase their efficiency to allow the size of the cooling surface to be reduced.
The losses in IGBT modules present in conventional inverter designs are mainly caused by two sources; conduction losses and switching losses. One way to improve IGBT module switching losses is generally by accelerating the IGBT turn-on and turn-off. However, with faster IGBT turn-off, the overvoltage due to the stray inductance of the high-frequency loop increases so much that slow down of the turn-off is often required to protect the device, thereby seriously impacting the efficiency of the inverter.